Father’s Day Roll-up

Most people celebrate Mother’s Day or Father’s Day by taking their spouses out to dinner. With my husband, I know he would usually prefer my cooking over anything else (notice I say usually…). So for this Father’s Day, I started off cooking a pancake breakfast for my husband and son, relaxed a little with them, and then began my dinner project – Lasagna Roll-Ups! It’s a great spin on a classic dish that makes each piece (or two) the perfect serving size. Sooooo comforting and satisfying. I want the person eating my food, in this case, my husband, to taste the love in every bite.

Your base will always be the same of course – lasagna noodles cooked al dente. If you over cook them, they will not hold up when it’s time to roll them up with filling inside. Once they’re done you want to lay them all out on your working surface. You’re going to need sufficient counter space to make this project go as smoothly and as efficiently as possible. And while you’re doing it, you may stop yourself and say “wow, I’m actually doing this?!” To keep your lasagna noodles from sticking and to allow the rolling process to go smoothly, lay them on parchment or wax paper.

Now for me, the noodles are the LAST thing I need before baking. Make your filling ahead of time to give it time to cool. Now what’s in the filling? I’ll give you the lowdown on mine, but you can get creative on this. There are 2 parts to my filling – the cheese portion and the meat portion. Cheese and meat…who doesn’t love that!! I’m already salivating! In on bowl, start your cheese portion. Normally this is ricotta, mozzarella, and egg, but I added spinach to this mix. For my meat portion, I used ground turkey (you can use beef if you like or even pork). Garlic, onions, red and green peppers were sautéed and added to the browned meat. Each lasagna roll-up was lined with the cheese mixture and then the meat mixture. So pretty…

Once that was done you start rolling them up. You can use a homemade sauce or your favorite jarred sauce and place a little on the bottom of the pan and line up your lasagna soldiers. Once they’re nice and cozy in their baking home, cover the top with sauce as well and then sprinkle mozzarella over the top. Into the oven they go and once bubbly they come out like this…

These roll-ups are delicious and they’re a great way to hide veggies from your kids! My son is 2 and ate these up. It was enough to eat for a few days and would freeze well also after rolling. Serve it with garlic bread on the side and you’re good to go. For dessert a made a classic yellow cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting. Perfect way to seal the deal after a great dinner! You’ve got to try these roll-up. A plate of meaty, cheesy, filling deliciousness!